- Self - Interviewee: [Robert Gottlieb, on his many years of being both the editor of Toni Morrison's novels and her friend/colleague] Our only clashes have been about commas, because I like commas, and Toni doesn't like commas. Finally, after *all these books* it occurred to me why we have this problem, which is I was either too stupid or just not interested enough, or whatever, to think of before. And it's because Toni, as you know, is a fabulous reader aloud, and she *hears* her prose. So that, when she's writing she hears what she's writing. I believe that she hears the pauses that commas suggest to a reader. But the reader isn't hearing her *speak* it, so we don't know where those pauses are, without those vital, adorable little commas. And we'll just say... 'Ok, Ok', and she'll say, 'Ok, you can have that one but you can't have *this* one', and it's a joke.
- Self - Interviewee: [Toni Morrison, immediately after a hard cut from a segment in which her long-time editor and friend, Robert Gottlieb, speculated that she dislikes using commas because she hears the pauses when she writes] The company that published me had published two recordings of my books. And I didn't listen to them. They were great *black* actresses. And, um, then I listened to one and I said, 'That's not right', meaning it wasn't the right sound, it wasn't the rhythm... pauses
- [chuckles]
- Self - Interviewee: , little things that only *I* would recognize. So since I was so picky, they said, 'Well, Ok'
- [laughs]
- Self - Interviewee: . So I did them all... because of *that*... because of the sound.
- Self - Interviewee: [writer Fran Lebowitz on her friendship with Morrison, in a segment titled, 'Fran & Friendship'] It's an extremely deep friendship. And, you know, a really long-lasting one. I have never really had a fight with Toni, which is really unusual for me. We *did* have a very lengthy argument as to whose mother made the best dessert, her mother's apple pie or my mother's apricot strudel. Toni had to admit, upon tasting my mother's apricot strudel... that they were *equally good*. My mother, who I... I brought Toni's mother's apple pie to my mother... said that yes, it was as good as her apricot strudel. And then my mother goes, 'I make apple pie, too!' I said, 'Mom, let's not... Let's stop it at this, OK?'
- [laughs]
- Self - Interviewee: [writer Fran Lebowitz on Morrison, in a segment titled, 'Character'] When I was a child, my mother used to always say to me, 'Can't you be the bigger person?' And, you know, truthfully I can't. I'm by nature the smaller person. Toni is the bigger person... *always* the bigger person.
- Self - Interviewee: [writer Fran Lebowitz, in a segment titled, 'Character'] I have always sought advice from Toni. And I'm not, like, the world's biggest advice-seeker... . I mean, very often I've turned to Toni for advice, or solace, um, because she can always, you know... because, um, she can always think of something worse.
- Self - Interviewee: [opera, film, theater, and festival director Peter Sellars, in a segment titled, 'Shakespeare'] I said to Toni, 'You know, we all love Shakespeare, but there's one really bad Shakespeare play, and that's called "Othello". It's embarrassing; you can tell that the guy didn't have any black friends... . There's not one thing that feels real... fake, fake, fake'. Toni just *called me out* and said, 'That's enough'. She spent the next four hours telling me that it was one of the greatest things ever written in the history of literature.
- Self - Interviewee: [hard cut to interview segment with Toni Morrison] I said, 'What are you talking about? It's fascinating!' I said, 'Are you trying to tell me that a woman running away during those days, to marry what was a *black man* and be in his *war* is not interesting to you?'
- [laughs]
- Self - Interviewee: [the documentary's subject, writer and editor Toni Morrison, in a segment titled, 'Shakespeare'] Shakespeare and I have a dialogue. He usually wins
- [drawing out the word 'wins' and then pausing]
- Self - Interviewee: because he knows, or senses or digs up so much truth about human beings... . amazing. I like the comparison, but I have to step back. Shakespeare is
- [pausing]
- Self - Interviewee: *the One*.